The reflections were fabulous, I couldn't get to the lake's edge fast enough with my camera. It's an area managed by DOC and has small camping spots for motrohomes and tents. Being DOC - dogs weren't allowed (*sigh*).
Perhaps some of Lake Paringa's biggest fans are sandflies! Or at least it seemed like that when I visited.
I'd only walked 100 metres from the bus when I was welcomed (or plagued) by a mass of tiny, black biting insects.
How did they even know I'd arrived? Turns out sandflies are attracted to shiny surfaces, moving objects, warmth and carbon dioxide. So, here I was, with my camera (a shiny object), beathing out carbon dioxide, while walking/moving along the lake edge. I was a prime target for these pesky critters.
As annoying as they are, I was interested enough to type 'Sandflies' into the friendly search engine 'Google'. Here's what I found out ...
- The New Zealand sandfly is actually a black fly and there are 13 species of backflies in NZ
- Only the female sandfly bites, she needs blood to lay eggs
- Apparently sandflies leave when the sun goes down, but mossies will still be buzzing about after sunset
- In NZ, sandflies are most active on warm, cloudy and windless days. They seem busiest before it rains
- When it's really cold, some places in NZ have no sandflies at all
Gotta love those sand flies. They seem to inhabit all the beautiful camping spots. We got a double whammy from them once. We started packing up camp then it rained again. When it stopped raining we quickly packed up. Every bare piece of skin was viciously attacked.
ReplyDeleteAs always your photos are stunning, Katrina